There's nothing special about creating a watering hole thread. It was just an idea that was started by a member (she was not a site staff member when she started the thread, btw) to keep the community aspect going while waiting for the device to be released.

To be honest, that's what I've felt that the Verizon pre-release thread has become and why I haven't tried to really tighten the off-topic chatter in there, so a separate thread isn't necessary, IMO. And seeing how the VZW GS3 is the only one waiting for release, I don't think there's a reason to make a general thread (vs just VZW). I'm half tempted to lock this thread to keep it from being a second VZW pre-release discussion thread.

I'll leave it open, for now, to see if any discussion is developed for it. If the discussion goes towards just being VZW, I'll likely lock it or merge it with the VZW thread. If this thread turns out to be a discussion among all GS3 owners, then I'd be more than happy to leave it be or move it to the Lounge, to be with the other Watering Hole thread.

There's nothing special about creating a watering hole thread. It was just an idea that was started by a member (she was not a site staff member when she started the thread, btw) to keep the community aspect going while waiting for the device to be released.

To be honest, that's what I've felt that the Verizon pre-release thread has become and why I haven't tried to really tighten the off-topic chatter in there, so a separate thread isn't necessary, IMO.

My plan was yes, that it could be for all S3 folks, not just Verizon. I figured since this device is being released on all 4 major networks that it could be a place for everyone. Maybe it's too late to start this thread or then again maybe it's to early...time will tell.

Hey treb, I saw you post about this in the GNex Watering Hole and figured I'd check it out. Hmm, fresh, new, plenty of room to grow. Kinda nice.

Anyway, let me start by saying congrats to all you proud new SGSIII owners, it looks like a solid device. You get this sucker established and I'll drop by for the conversation, and feel free to visit us in the Galaxy Nexus Watering Hole as well.

Hey treb, I saw you post about this in the GNex Watering Hole and figured I'd check it out. Hmm, fresh, new, plenty of room to grow. Kinda nice.

Anyway, let me start by saying congrats to all you proud new SGSIII owners, it looks like a solid device. You get this sucker established and I'll drop by for the conversation, and feel free to visit us in the Galaxy Nexus Watering Hole as well.

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Thanks for the support. Hopefully our thread can be as successful as yours. Feel free to stop by anytime.

I was wondering what would happen after all of us received our S3's. I think (not that my opinion really counts ) it would be nice to have all carriers input. This is going to be a huge community after all is said and done. Many opinions, specialties, quirks etc. I was getting a bit sad knowing the pre release thread is coming to an end. Being a long time lurker, I felt comfortable in that thread and I am excited to see everyone in this one. I say ~ the more the merrier~ I would love to know what neat things att, sprint, tmo etc have discovered in order to quicken my mastery of this device

I am wondering, just how big will this S3 thing become? I am so pleased with Samsung for releasing the exact phone over all networks. I am going to love the fact I can go into multiple stores and buy accessories. (ok I'm a girl lol)

Htc made it impossible to purchase items cross carriers, or even big ticket stores.

Feel free to stop by our thread. It's mostly off topic chatter but we're a fun bunch. Keep it clean and cool and no one will have any problems. A few other devices have their own like the Incredible and Triumph.

What defines a Galaxy S III ? We already know some have a quad processor (Exynos) and some a dual (Snapdragon S4), there are two camera modules being used (Sony and Samsung), 1GB or 2GB of RAM, Wolfson or Samsung sound chip, different radios, ........ The only common attributes seem to be the screen with Gorilla Glass 2, the plastic housing and the "Galaxy S III" logo on the battery cover.

So it all boils down to this, "It's a Galaxy S III because the back cover says so."

What defines a Galaxy S III ? We already know some have a quad processor (Exynos) and some a dual (Snapdragon S4), there are two camera modules being used (Sony and Samsung), 1GB or 2GB of RAM, Wolfson or Samsung sound chip, different radios, ........ The only common attributes seem to be the screen with Gorilla Glass 2, the plastic housing and the "Galaxy S III" logo on the battery cover.

So it all boils down to this, "It's a Galaxy S III because the back cover says so."

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Sillygoose! That's kind of a negative nanny way of putting it. It's not a Samsung sound chip anyways ... it's a Qualcomm chip:

We don't have real concrete info on the Qualcomm DAC yet, but I would wager it's a fair bit better than the Yamaha in the Galaxy S II variants. In addition, all the S3's are shipping with Ice Cream Sandwich skinned with Samsung's most streamlined and up-to-date TouchWiz interface, which is actually quite smooth, polished, and downright functional as far as skins go. As a Sense user and a TouchWiz user, I would take TouchWiz and its custom apps over HTC's ANY DAY. It hasn't always been this way, but TouchWiz has outpaced HTC, despite both skins improving.

So beyond the same screen and same shell, and same microphones, and mostly the same cameras (all versions tested have overwhelmingly positive reviews on the cameras), you've also got the same apps and under the hood OS enhancements from Samsung and advancement of ICS, which is still only on a small percentage of handsets worldwide. They both also have the same reasonably strong speakerphones and noise cancelling microphones and the same 2100 battery.

Both devices are so similar in real usage that almost no one will ever miss the quad core. Apps are still not even maxing the Adreno 225. Yes, the new Mali is a better GPU, and the quad version is capable of faster benchmark scores (provided the benchmark provides multi-core support, which will also apply to app performance!) However, Krait is no slouch. It's a very mature, speedy, and battery efficient platform. It's cost effective as well, which means many of us can purchase a $200 top-tier device rather than the $300 trend many high end smartphones have followed on their release day. Razr release day price? $300. Galaxy Nexus? $300. HTC Rezound? $300. Their price eventually reduced, but the 16GB Galaxy S III goes for $200 with most U.S. carriers (on contract pricing.) I doubt Exynos has the kind of availability too meet such competitive prices with U.S. and European markets combined. I am very happy to pay $200 for this instead of $300, and I'm still getting the Cadillac of all dual core processors. Krait (S4) leaves all current gen dual cores in the dust.

While the A9 is a very power efficient core, Krait offers a much wider front end, wider execution back end, faster FPU and an improved cache/memory interface. All of these factors together combined with similar clock speeds to what Tegra 3 is able to hit should result in better absolute performance in single or lightly threaded applications.

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Single threaded floating point performance is obviously a strength of the MSM8960 and Krait. Qualcomm tells us that Krait is able to multi-issue floating point instructions, something that the Cortex A9 cannot do. The MSM8960 memory controller also appears to be more efficient than previous designs, contributing to the magnitude of the win here.

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Qualcomm's strengths are clearly single/lightly threaded CPU performance as Krait is able to offer some significant steps forward in that department. Tegra 3 can hold onto an advantage in heavily threaded apps, but I'm not entirely convinced that in phones we'll see a lot of that.

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This is the key, here, and this is the usage model that 99% of us will throw at the phone most of the time, and even when loading multiple heavy apps, the U.S. S III is not known to lag noticeably more than the international, and 2GB of memory obviously contributes to that. Raw multithreaded benchmark scores, and the GPU are the only areas where you will see notable differences, and they still are not perceivable by the end user.

Look to the following links and read up a bit for some more info if interested:

It goes without saying that MSM8960 is a hugely important SoC release for Qualcomm. It's the first release with Qualcomm's new Krait CPU architecture, an entirely new cellular baseband with support for nearly every air interface, and is manufactured on TSMC's 28nm process. It says something that we're able to hold 28nm TSMC silicon in our hands in the form of the MDP, and it's only a matter of time before we start seeing Krait show up in devices in 2012.
We've gone over basically all of the benchmarks available to us on Android right now, and yet subjective performance impressions are still valuable. The MDP8960 is the absolute fastest we've seen Ice Cream Sandwich thus far - the UI is absolutely butter smooth everywhere, and web browsing in either Chrome or the stock Android Browser is also the smoothest we've seen it. There's no stutter bringing up the application switcher, or taking screenshots, two places that 4.0.3 still drops frames on the Galaxy Nexus.
Krait offers another generational leap in mobile SoC performance. The range of impact depends entirely on the workload but it's safe to say that it's noticeable. The GPU side of the equation has been improved tremendously as well, although that's mostly a function of 28nm enabling a very high clock speed for Qualcomm's Adreno 225.

Both devices are so similar in real usage that almost no one will ever miss the quad core. Apps are still not even maxing the Adreno 225. Yes, the new Mali is a better GPU, and the quad version is capable of faster benchmark scores (provided the benchmark provides multi-core support, which will also apply to app performance!) However, Krait is no slouch. It's a very mature, speedy, and battery efficient platform. It's cost effective as well, which means many of us can purchase a $200 top-tier device rather than the $300 trend many high end smartphones have followed on their release day. Razr release day price? $300. Galaxy Nexus? $300. HTC Rezound? $300. Their price eventually reduced, but the 16GB Galaxy S III goes for $200 with most U.S. carriers (on contract pricing.) I doubt Exynos has the kind of availability too meet such competitive prices with U.S. and European markets combined. I am very happy to pay $200 for this instead of $300, and I'm still getting the Cadillac of all dual core processors. Krait (S4) leaves all current gen dual cores in the dust.

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This comment about the price in the US being able to be $200 instead of $300 probably has little to do with the SoC. I would suspect that the S4 Krait actually costs more than the Exynos. Why? Samsung makes the Exynos in-house and they had to buy the S4 Krait chips from Qualcomm. While I'm sure Qualcomm has given them bulk pricing, I still would think it costs more, or close to the same price (considering R&D and everything) to where it really wouldn't effect the final pricing.

Also, the $200 price is the remainder after the carrier subsidizes the phone. iPhones are far more expensive (when paying full retail) then the Razr/Razr MAXX and the Nexus that you mention, but it also has a $200 price tag. The real reason is how much the carrier is willing to subsidize.

Verizon is the carrier that started requiring the consumer to pay more of the subsidy. It started with the Thunderbolt, and they reasoned it was because of LTE. The T-Bolt was the first phone I've heard of that had a $250 and then later LTE models went for $300. Verizon is selling the GS3 for $200 because every other carrier is selling the GS3 for $200. Just like how they're forced into $200 for the iPhone, because I'm sure they would love to push more of the subsidy to the consumer. When the iPhone5 (or whatever it'll be called) comes out, equipped with LTE, the subsidy will be $200 on all networks, and Verizon will (regrettably) follow suit.

Well, it looks like yall are going with this thread as your Watering Hole. As such, I moved it into the Lounge forum.

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Just give us a little time to get things going as it's a little crazy over at the S3 threads right now. Not to mention alot of us are still waiting to get out S3's ( that was me throwing Verizon under the bus ). Not to mention the S3 folks have to figure out this thread is now over here in The Lounge. :dontknow:

Just give us a little time to get things going as it's a little crazy over at the S3 threads right now. Not to mention alot of us are still waiting to get out S3's ( that was me throwing Verizon under the bus ). Not to mention the S3 folks have to finger out this thread is now over here in The Lounge. :dontknow:

So.... Can someone please define "watering hole" ? I know, I know "newbie".
Is it just a general anything (regarding S3) goes?

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Pretty much. The topic will probably drift away from S3 periodically. That's fine. The VZW thread in the S3 subforum is a fairly good example of what you can expect of this thread if it gains the same popularity.

So.... Can someone please define "watering hole" ? I know, I know "newbie".
Is it just a general anything (regarding S3) goes?

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Think of the S3 forum as the factory floor and the S3 Watering Hole like the break room. You can take off the hardhat and safety goggles and relax a little bit. Hang out and chat, which is why it got moved to the lounge.

In the GNex watering hole we talk about anything. Even spent about 200 posts one time discussing various forms of pulled pork. Some times we throw props about what are kids are doing or ask advise about other things going on in our life.

Think of the S3 forum as the factory floor and the S3 Watering Hole like the break room. You can take off the hardhat and safety goggles and relax a little bit. Hang out and chat, which is why it got moved to the lounge.

In the GNex watering hole we talk about anything. Even spent about 200 posts one time discussing various forms of pulled pork. Some times we throw props about what are kids are doing or ask advise about other things going on in our life.

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Ah, well then, count me in ... As I for one would have shut down the pulled pork conversation with my 1 recipe..... After-all, Texas kinda has the meat thing licked (pun intended )!

Now, can you advise me on HOW TO GET MY BLEEPING PHONE ?
lol
Ps, maybe I can bribe them with my pulled pork?

Ah, well then, count me in ... As I for one would have shut down the pulled pork conversation with my 1 recipe..... After-all, Texas kinda has the meat thing licked (pun intended )!

Now, can you advise me on HOW TO GET MY BLEEPING PHONE ?
lol
Ps, maybe I can bribe them with my pulled pork?

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Sure, I think I can help you with that.

First, you need to call up BLEEP and ask to speak with BLEEP. Give them this special referral code BLEEP. Once that's done, you can give them your pre-order number and they will process your pre-order shipment today. If you give them the password of BLEEP-BLEEP, they will even overnight it.